False consciousness
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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False consciousness or false needs is the Marxist thesis that material and institutional processes in capitalist society mislead the proletariat — and other classes — about the real relations of forces between those classes.
Culture industries may cultivate false needs; that is, needs created and satisfied by capitalism. True needs, in contrast, are freedom, creativity, or genuine happiness. Marcuse was the first to demarcate true needs from false needs.